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Activist Communiqué

Krystalline Kraus is an intrepid journalist and veteran reporter for rabble.ca since its 2001 beginnings. She needs neither a red cape nor safety goggles to fly into her latest political assignment.
She often live-tweets from events -- almost exclusively First Nations and environmental issues. You can follow her on Twitter @krystalline_k.

Two of Toronto’s largest universities are facing strike turmoil, triggered by a Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) walkout.

These labour actions will cause educational disruptions across the Greater Toronto Area. It would also cause economic disruption as pickets are unfurled onto the streets. In regards to numbers, that’s more than 100,000 undergraduates affected just as the finally lap of the school year begins.

Up at York University, the administration cancelled all classes today, as well as exams and academic extra-circulars activities in response to the strike vote by CUPE 3903. 3,700 York staff who were allowed to vote, including teaching assistants and contract professors, voted at night on Monday March 2, 2015.

The second I see the name Trayvon Martin I think of George Zimmerman. Every time I hear the name George Zimmerman, I think of Trayvon Martin.

Their destinies are interlinked with another and will forever be linked by the searching power of Internet tools such as Google. Their story began on a rainy evening in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012.

Trayvon Martin was a 17 year old, African American teenager who was walking back from a 7-Eleven where he had just bought an ice tea and a bag of Skittles to enjoy as a snack.

On the way back to the house he was staying at, he was spotted by neighbourhood patrolman, George Zimmerman, a 28 year old man of mixed racial background, he self-identifies at Hispanic.

On Tuesday February 24, 2015, American rapper and R&B singer, Chris Brown, was forced to abruptly cancel his Tuesday night concert in Montreal and tonight’s concert that was scheduled to take place in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre.

On Ticket Master’s website, there is only a short statement citing “immigration issues” for the reason for the short notice cancellation.

Chris Brown used the equally as brief Twitter to announce the same cancellation of his Between the Sheets tour dates in Canada just hours before he was supposed to take the stage in Montreal, Quebec.

In an attempt to clear up some of the confusion running rampant over the Internet this morning concerning B.C. Indigenous communities and their support of pipelines, I’ve tried to unravel the mystery of who these “sell-outs” actually are.

First off, let me say that yes, it would be incorrect to assume that every single Indigenous band across Canada is against corporate pipelines and government energy products.

Such blanket statements just cannot be made.

There is no such thing as a “pan-Indian” culture or any way to assume that an Indigenous band in B.C. and one in the Maritimes would have exactly the same traditions or the same politics.

If you’re feeling all cooped up at home to avoid the cold and snow, I would like to suggest to you a new way of looking at winter and invite you to learn about the majesty that arctic stories and medicine hold.

There is a new game in town that I would like to introduce you to and hopefully you’ll get to know and fall in love with her just as I did.

Oh ya, and by new game in town, I mean that literally.

The new game in town, called Never Alone, features an Alaskan Native girl named Nuna and her Arctic fox whose challenge it is to rescue her homeland from an endless blizzard. The title is translated from Kisima Inŋitchuŋa in the Iñupiat language.

This winter there has been a string of Cold Weather Alerts declared by the City of Toronto. What this essentially means is an alert is issued when the temperature or wind chill is expected to reach levels ranging from -30°C to -55°C for at least two hours depending on your location.

So far, during the winter of 2014-15, Extreme Cold Weather Alerts have been issued on 27 days.

Now that we have had some time to reflect on the #ShutDownCanada demonstrations, I think there are some important lessons to be learned or re-learned by veteran activists who think they know all the old tricks.

Right now, it's early Friday morning, February 13, 2015, as I write this. I have been trying to stall for as long as I could to try and make sense of everything that is supposed to occur today across the country.

You see, today is supposed to be #ShutCanadaDown day.

First a word concerning online organizing.

There was a time in Toronto, that coincided with Occupy Toronto (and Occupy Canada), where activists were trying out using social media platforms for more than just announcements but actual organizing – in lieu of calling a meeting, agreeing on logistics and debating about tactics, etc.